RV Purchase: Why We Bought Used

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Today I am talking about the reasoning Sabrina and I used to purchase a used RV instead of a new one. When Sabrina and I first started shopping for our RV, we only looked at new ones. We said we would never buy used because, as part of our shopping experience, we rented a Class A motorhome to see if we liked it. We liked it, except it was pretty gross and had a handful of issues that made camping in it challenging. Overall we loved the experience of RVing, just not the RV itself.

Friendly Advice

While shopping for an RV, our friend had some excellent advice for us. He advised us not to be afraid to buy used because when you buy a used RV, the previous owner has already worked out all the bugs and has squashed them. When you buy a new RV, a lot of that first year is spent fixing issues and warranty work. He also said this would give us more time on the road and less time in the shop.

Reliability

That really stuck with us, and it was like a light bulb went off because we were buying the RV for Sabrina’s work. We couldn’t sit in the shops waiting on repairs throughout the year, even if it is under warranty. We need to be able to get to our next destination. Also, we had a schedule that had to be kept. So, that really hit us. From then on, we completely changed our shopping and decided to buy a used RV, but it will need to be slightly used within a year or two. We started looking at RVs that were closer to only one year old, and to our surprise, the price difference between brand new and something six months old was drastically different; some of these RVs seemed like steals to us.

Hiring an RV Inspector

We found our RV in Ohio. It was only six months old and under $80,000. We felt it was too good to be true, so we hired an RV inspector to go out and look at it (which we highly recommend everyone to do, having an RV inspector was great). He found a few minor issues with the RV, and the dealer, Shafer’s Truck and RV Sales, agreed to fix those issues before we flew out to look at the RV. They did take care of the issues. Sabrina and I flew out to look the RV over ourselves. The RV was beautiful and in tip-top shape; the previous owners had bought it, taken it out on a few trips then decided to trade it in for a diesel pusher.

Their loss was our gain because an RV depreciates quickly when it leaves the lot. So for us to buy used, we did not take that initial depreciation loss.

Many people will tell you, though you don’t get the factory warranty by buying used, which is usually true. So, we purchased an extended warranty for up to five years. We knew it was only a matter of time before something would break on the RV. Our RV has held up well throughout the years, and we wound up breaking even on the warranty cost. We now have 120,000 miles on our Vista. All in all, it turned out to be a great deal.

New has its Advantages

This isn’t to say that buying new does not have its advantages. For example, when you buy new, you get exactly what you want. Often you can order through the dealer to ensure you don’t get anything you don’t want. In our case, our RV came with a drop-down bunk over the captain’s chairs, and at the time, we didn’t think we would need or want it, but we have used it a few times when family visits. If we were buying new, it would not have been an option we chose. I guess you can also say we did not have a choice in the colors of our RV. If we had bought new, we could have selected the outside and the inside color scheme.

Also, when you buy new, it is clean, like super clean, so if you have allergies to pets or smoke, you may want to look at new units as these RVs should come allergen-free.

Another plus when buying new, you get all of the latest and greatest tech. This is why we were also trying to stay only a year old. We didn’t want an outdated RV from day one. We still missed out on a few items, but nothing major.

And the last significant advantage of the new RV is that the warranty is included in the price of the RV. These are typically one to two years. If you want to extend them out longer, that will be an extra charge.

So that is why we bought a used RV, but I would love to hear from you about what you own. Did you go with new or used, and why?